Stateline South Australia

Karlene Maywald Interview

IAN HENSCHKE: Now decisions about Lake Bonney fall into the lap of Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald, it's part of her job and in her Riverland electorate of Chaffey. I spoke to her earlier today.

Minister welcome to Stateline.

KARLENE MAYWALD, WATER SECURITY MINISTER: Thank you, Ian.

IAN HENSCHKE: What are you going to do with the lake?

KARLENE MAYWALD: What we are doing with the lake is managing it in accordance with a set of protocols established when the closure was agreed upon some time ago.

The closure was agreed upon because we needed to save water from evaporative losses as a consequence of the very, very dry period we are experiencing. This drought has gone on, and is more extreme than anyone could ever have imagined.

Now what those protocols require us to do is to monitor the lake on a very, very regular basis. We commissioned the Natural Resource Management Board to undertake a study and a report for us to actually make application to the Murray Darling Basin Commission and also to our interstate counterparts to actually reintroduce water into the lake as the triggers were likely to be reached sometime within six months.

That report was used by the state Government to gain that support to introduced water back into the lake. We're undertaking the process now to put that water back in.

IAN HENSCHKE: But that report said that at the latest, the water should have gone back in last month.

KARLENE MAYWALD: What it actually said was that at the latest water should start to go in - because you can't put it in, 20 giving litres is a lot of water, it doesn't get in overnight.

IAN HENSCHKE: It said October. We're in November now.

KARLENE MAYWALD: It says some time, it takes some time to get that amount of water in. The report actually recommended that the water should go start to go back in by October at the latest.

We are actually still undertaking the work, we're getting the support from our other jurisdictions, and will commence putting that water into the lake as a partial refill.

IAN HENSCHKE: When? When will the water go in?

KARLENE MAYWALD: Within the next few weeks it will start to go back into the lakes.

IAN HENSCHKE: Is that a guarantee.

KARLENE MAYWALD: Yes, it's a guarantee. But what we will be doing is putting that water in over a period of time. We won't put great big huge sum of water in there. We will partially refill the lake and replace the evaporative losses to maintain it at a partially refilled state. We won't be filling the lake to its former level.

IAN HENSCHKE: What will that do, putting that amount of water in?

KARLENE MAYWALD: Putting that amount of water back in will stabilise the lake at a certain level, and prevent the reaching of the triggers that would cause a major fish death.

We have seen a fish death occur in recent days. We have actually done some investigations into what has caused that.

At this stage, there is no causal link between the closure and those fish deaths. The scientists are telling us that potentially the theory is that a lack of dissolved oxygen has caused the fish deaths. But there's no link to the closure at this stage and we are doing further investigations. We have fish that are autopsied at the moment to actually determine what has caused the death of those fish.

IAN HENSCHKE: But the locals and that scientist are saying it is linked to the closure of the lake because it is causing the plants that are dying, causing the oxygen to diminish which is killing the fish.

KARLENE MAYWALD: We have actually have the Australian Water Quality Control Centre and we have scientists who are actually undertaking that work at the moment. The autopsies haven't been complete. So that can't be determined. That's a theory put forward by one scientist and the locals. It has not been proven as yet. And we'll wait until we get the proof to actually determine what has caused it. It could be something completely different.

IAN HENSCHKE: Did you have fish deaths like this before when the lake was linked to the river that weren't related to cold?

KARLENE MAYWALD: As Shane Warrick, one of your guests on the program indicated, there has been fish deaths in the past, and they have generally been seasonal.

IAN HENSCHKE: But they were related to temperature. He said they were related to seasonal conditions.

KARLENE MAYWALD: Yes, that's exactly right. This could be something like that. Another theory that has been put forward is that the recent rainfall, coupled with the warmer weather, with low winds in the air at the time that has prevented the mixing of the water in the lake could have added to it.

So we are actually going to find out what has caused it first and foremost before we jump to conclusions. There are a number of theories. Before I make decisions on what to do to actually counter those, I actually want to know what has happened.

IAN HENSCHKE: Let's just go back one step. Why has it taken so long to act on the report when the original report said that the water should have gone in in October?

KARLENE MAYWALD: We are going through the process at the moment. We needed to seek approval across the jurisdictions to get a joint and collected decision on where the water would come from. We are operating in an environment where there's not enough water to go around for anyone and in particular the environment itself, the Lower Lakes, in a number of our wetlands right throughout the Riverland region, and below loch one as well, are in extreme state of degradation and it's really important that the water we do put to different purposes has been agreed upon by all the jurisdictions, and the highest priorities are managed.

KARLENE MAYWALD: The science said that the triggers would be reached later in January or February. And therefore, their recommendation was that we should start to refill in October. It is now the middle of November, and we are intend to have that water going in as soon as we practically can.

We needed sign off because in the other jurisdictions, they have priorities as well. And they have priorities for wetlands and other areas that are under enormous stress also. We had to argue the case nationally to ensure Lake Bonney was included in those priorities for watering in an environment where there is very little water available for anything.

IAN HENSCHKE: On that point Lake Alexandrina, there are problems there as well. There are reports today that there would be a weir built at Clayton. Can you comment on those reports?

KARLENE MAYWALD: The reports are incorrect about a weir at Clayton. What has happened is the community around Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island and the Alexandrina Council have put forward a proposal for Government to investigate.

We have agreed to investigate whether it is feasible. And we have asked the Murray Darling Basin committee to refer it to a committee to investigate it. There's been no decision made. A community inquiry has been made and we are following up on that on behalf of the community.